Chapter 11
After a long night, the next morning, the Professor calls together everybody into the lobby. It occurred to him during the night that something needed to be said to address what they had faced these last couple of weeks let alone what just occurred yesterday.
"May I have your attention," the Professor calls out as he looks to see if everyone is here.
He spots Wanda...who has shadows under her eyes showing the sort of night she had. Next to her, his arm around her, is Clark. That...surprises Charles a little. It's a small pleasant surprise as matter of fact to see Clark acting more like his sympathetic self.
Elsewhere Peter stands next to Kitty, holding hands. Peter had stayed the night looking after her.
As for Scott and Jean their friends had been there for them. Scott also had his brother and Martha and Jonathan had been available all night for anyone.
Logan had two things. Storm and his usual coping mechanism; beer.
Hank had really spent the night with Charles, them comforting each other. They two were Magneto's friends. They two remember the man Erik had once been.
The crowd quietens down and Charles commences his speech. "I won't lie to you. These last couple of weeks have been some of the hardest we have ever faced. We have faced one our largest set-backs. We have been beaten...twice with an ease I know none of us like to think about by Apocalypse. We have suffered a deep loss. I know that may seem like a surprise to many of you but despite our many differences Magneto was still a human being. He was a friend...a father," he tags on to remind them.
Charles pauses a moment to try and recompose himself. Magneto was his friend. It was a very long night trying to accept what had happened. Not just for him but Hank as well and he'd even been on the phone to Sean and Moira who were also there back at the start when they were all teammates and friends with Magneto. They all had grief to share. He picks it up again, "We will pause and allow time for those who wish to grieve. I plan to perform a memorial service for Magneto. I have to discuss the details with his closest relative here first. It'll most likely be in a few days. Attendance will be voluntarily. Despite who he was Erik deserves at least this."
Another moment. "We will carry on because nothing has changed in the end. What we stand for is as important now as it always was. And, yes, that means we will face Apocalypse once again soon because he must be stopped. If he isn't everything we stand for, everything Magneto died for, will be destroyed. No, we don't know precisely what it is Apocalypse plans but we know enough to know it is not a future any of us would wish to live in."
One last moment. "Take these few days...take whatever time you need to yourselves," Charles permits them. "That is all," he ends this get together.
The group of students and staff start to drift away. Charles lowers his head until he feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks up to see it is Ororo, looking at him with a sad smile and vast sympathy.
"Will you take your own advice?" she asks him.
"Hmm?" he queries.
"Take a few days to yourself. I can run the Institute," Ororo offers/instructs him. She knows that however well he hides it the loss of Magneto must be taking a big toll on him. They were very close friends once. Besides with many of the students away visiting their parents the place wasn't as busy or unmanageable as it usually is.
"Thank you, Ororo," Charles accepts her offer, glad of the opportunity to grieve and concentrate on giving Erik a good memorial. Speaking of that he needs to speak to Wanda...who had hung around with Clark at her side. Charles rolls over to them. "How are you doing, Wanda?" he asks, truly interested in her feelings.
Wanda's face grows a little pensive.
Clark answers for her. "We're not quite up to being ready to express our emotions," he explains it on her behalf. Clark had, in fact, spent all night watching over her...and on another day Tabby would have made a joke about that being a fantasy come true, having Clark in her room at night.
Charles nods along. "When you are ready I do wish to discuss a memorial for your father," he makes the proposal to her.
"We'll get back to you on that," Clark again answers for her.
"There's no rush," Charles assures Wanda.
"Thank you, Professor," Clark says.
Charles nods. He almost turns to leave when Wanda's voice stops him.
"Professor?" she queries, her voice a little hoarse and croaky.
"Yes, Wanda?"
"What about Lorna? And Pietro?" she queries after her siblings. They must be going through what she is.
"I don't know," Charles gives the honest answer. "If you wish I can try and find them on Cerebro but I can't guarantee I will be able to," he has to caution because of the cloaking technology Magneto uses to hide his bases from him.
"Ok. If you could..." Wanda requests.
"I shall try," Charles agrees to do.
Clark gives Wanda a gentle supportive squeeze.
Wanda sighs. "I wonder...Pietro will be alright. He's always alright. Looks after number 1. That's my brother. But Lorna...she said something about losing her mother...and she's younger than me...do you think she's alright, Clark?" she asks, thinking of what her younger sister must be enduring.
"I think Lorna is as strong in spirit as her big sister from what I saw when we went to Egypt. I'm sure she'll get through this...and if she was here you would help her, I'm certain."
"Are you?" Wanda asks.
"Wanda...have I ever doubted your intentions? Remember back to the Sentinels. I left what choice to make up to you and I had faith you would make the right one."
Wanda manages a half-smile at that memory. It momentarily eases her aching heart. "I wonder where they are right now," she contemplates.
Magneto's base(one of them)...
With Magneto gone for the Acolytes there was only one real option. Return to base and report to who was next in charge.
That would be Mr Sinister and Frenzy.
That was Magneto's instruction he gave the 2 Lady Masterminds before he left for Egypt originally. That those two would carry on the alliance. Carry on with the great work of creating a mutant nation where all mutants would be welcomed and safe.
They arrive...and the scene surprises them.
"Where is everyone?" Martinique asks because the base is utterly deserted. And it looks like they left in a hurry too from the detritous lying everywhere.
"Gone," a small voice suddenly answers.
The Acolytes turn around to find a devastated looking Haze, her hair, face and costume a mess. It's clear she's been crying as much as Polaris has.
"What do you mean gone, Alicia?" Gambit asks his sort of girlfriend.
Haze shrugs. "Just gone. As soon as word spread of Magneto's demise Sinister ordered everyone to relocate to the Savage Land. I expect all the other bases are just like this one."
"But you're still here?" Sabretooth asks with a suspicious eye.
"Where do I have to go?" Haze asks, her voice hollow. "My mother is a statue and Magneto's dead. I have nothing left," she explains, her expression showing how utterly empty and pointless life now feels to her.
"Where's Valerie?" Lorna asks in reference to Puzzler, a sort of adopted niece to her father and therefore sort of Lorna's cousin.
"If she's not here I guess she's down in the Savage Land," Alicia answers. "Oh...Sinister left you guys a recorded message. He asked me to pass on that message when he saw I wasn't leaving," she suddenly recalls. "It's...somewhere," she says waving her hand about in a vague gesture. "I'm sure you can find it," she says, not really caring before she turns, walks off and starts to teleport.
"Alicia! Wait!" Gambit calls out but it can't stop her as she vanishes in her usual green haze.
"Real good job keeping your birds under control, Cajun," Sabretooth critiques.
"Has anyone ever told you to just shut up," Colossus snaps at the big feral mutant, himself utterly fed-up...and more. With Magneto gone...what about his sister? Maybe this message from Sinister has answers for him. Colossus stomps off in his metal form, determined to find this tape.
Lorna's green eyes suddenly go wide. "Wait a minute!" she cries. "If everyone here is gone what about my mother?!"
Lorna sprints off to the infirmary room her mother has been kept in since she slipped into a coma.
Pietro follows her, slower than he obviously could go. He enters the room just behind her and they both find Lorna's mother has been left behind, still lying there in her bed.
Lorna's heart aches more than it already is. Without someone with proper medical expertise to care for her, her mother will...oh dear God no. "No. This...this can't be happening," Lorna says in a whisper, tears rolling down her face as she desperately wishes this was just a nightmare that she could wake up from.
Pietro so wishes Lorna was right...and that this wasn't happening because...because...he doesn't really know what he does now with his life. He'll admit for awhile growing up he was pretty aimless but once his father came back into his life Pietro had a goal. His father's goal...and now...in fact now who was in charge? Sinister?
Pietro knows for a fact his father didn't trust that guy...and who can blame him. Sinister was creepy...like horror movie creepy. Pietro can't let that guy be in control. He'd destroy what his father was trying to do. Besides if anyone should be in charge it should be the son of Magneto. Him.
Just then both Pietro and Lorna get a telepathic message from one of the Lady Masterminds telling them Colossus has found Sinister's message and they should come see.
Lorna kisses her comatose mother on the forehead and swears she'll be right back. She leaves with Pietro following on behind to find out just what the hell has happened.
So the abandoned and forsaken Acolytes gather round the big screen in what had been the media monitoring area. This was where Magneto had all forms of media monitored and from where he ran the fake websites where he communicated with mutants around the world, broadcasting his message and indoctrinating them into his way of thinking, organising small sleeper cells, readying them for the day of the general mutant uprising and the war that would inevitably follow.
Gambit hadn't been able to get Alicia to talk to him yet. She had barricaded herself in her room. See this is just what he was thinking the other day. He doesn't need this. These complications. It's only his soft heart that he doesn't want to leave her in this state.
Colossus, who found the message, plays it and the pale faced image of Mr Sinister appears on screen, smiling, showing his pointed teeth. "Ah, greetings Acolytes," he says in his polished, British tones. "If you're watching this message you've no doubt returned to find we're gone. I do apologise for what may seem to be abandoning you but after Magneto...left us..."
Lorna sniffles at that.
"...a hasty decision had to be made. He left very specific instructions. I won't bore you with the details but to summarise it basically he asked for the rest of us to carry on his dream and that is what we have done. We are all down in the Savage Land. Magneto's dream of a mutant nation, a place where mutants are safe from the threat of humanity, will now come into being. You're free to join us. I am sorry but I cannot provide any transportation for you but I do believe young Haze chose to stay behind if you can find her. So...that's it really. I shall see you when I see you. Adieu."
And that is it.
"You have got to be bloody kidding me!" Martinique exclaims in complaint at the fact that's it.
"I agree," Regan says. "Bloody git, just leaving us here. Oh, for the days where plonkers like that were sent to the Tower," she laments nostalgically.
"So what are we doing mates?" Pyro asks them because he's kinda clueless. "Are we going?"
"Screw that," Sabretooth snorts. "I have better things to do than trek down to the south pole," he decides. He didn't work for Magneto for some altruistic goal. That was Magneto's vision. Sabretooth...well Magneto has his ways of persuading you to work for him. "I'm out of here. Don't care what the rest of you do. I have a life beyond this!"
Sabretooth turns to leave only to be grabbed and thrown against the wall and held there by Colossus who is glaring down into the feral mutant. "Tin man you have 1 second to let me go!" Sabretooth roars in anger.
"I will let you go when you tell me where my sister is!" Colossus shouts angrily. With Magneto gone so is the hold over him.
Gambit steps in before this gets out of hand. "Let him go, Ruskie. He doesn't know. No-one does."
Colossus snaps his head round. "You aided in her kidnap," he reminds Gambit.
"Oui," Gambit accepts his part in it. "But the point is she's vanished. Kidnapped by someone with teleportation powers. Magneto obviously wasn't going to tell you d'at. Getting on to two months now from what Gambit knows. Don't know who did it. Don't know where she is. Sorry," he tags on, feeling a little bad for the guy.
Colossus doesn't want to believe it.
"Pietro?" Lorna queries for the facts. Before, he was like their father in not saying. Maybe now he'll say since it all no longer matters.
The speedster sighs and relents. What the hell? Doesn't matter now. "It's true. She's gone," he admits that he knew about it.
"You knew!" Lorna shouts at him. Good God...her family...what are they like. "Wanda's right. She's absolutely right about the two of you. I-I can't be dealing with this right now!" she says, coming close to breaking down so she sprints off.
"Lorna wait!" Pietro shouts and is about to chase after her when Gambit stops him.
"Take Gambit's advice. Let de lady be for awhile."
Pietro shoves him off with a snarl and walks off, human pace.
Colossus releases Sabretooth and just stands there, lost in thought and in the destruction of any hope he had to be reunited with his sister, his precious little snowflake.
Sabretooth could make him pay for it...but you know what the thought of what the big idiot must be going through right now will be keeping Sabretooth in a nice rosy internal glow for a few days. So he just leaves.
"Is everyone leaving?" Pyro inquires.
Regan and Martinique share a look. "It's over isn't it?" the younger asks the older.
Martinique nods. "Yeah. I mean working for Magneto was one thing. Going to live down in that swamp with no functioning sewage system...ew!"
Regan agrees. "Home? To England?" she proposes for what they can do.
"Seems so," Martinique accepts.
"It's not so bad. We could go clubbing. Bloody hell have I missed a good dance."
Martinique actually smiles at the thought. It's so strange that after so long hating each other her and her sister seem to be more similar than she ever thought. May not last but for the moment why not enjoy it as long as she can. Can always get back to trying to kill each other tomorrow.
The two sisters leave to pack their things.
Gambit too doesn't stay or intend to go down to the Savage Land. Like they were saying. It's over. For him at least it definitely is. He's packing his stuff, getting his bike and hitting the road just like he was thinking before.
As for Alicia...he can't force her out of her room. He'll give it one more try to see if she'll talk to him then he's gone.
As for Rogue...give him some time to clear his head and then he'll get back to her. It's not like he doesn't know where she is.
This leaves Pyro standing around awkwardly with a still unmoving Colossus. He looks around. You know what this wouldn't be a bad place for him to just stay awhile. It's shielded from detection and it's not like he has anything to rush home for. Might get there eventually but for right now he could do with just kicking back and taking a vacation.
Sabretooth is a man who never keeps much personal so basically he just immediately walks out the door.
Where he's going he hasn't decided yet.
Just away.
From everyone.
Probably back into the wilderness until he decides his next move.
Gambit is a man who never has much. A thief may have a need to leave in a hurry so it doesn't take long before what he wants to take is packed in a bag and strapped to his bike...which has just been left in the rush by everyone else to leave. In fact there's a lot of stuff left behind in the haste. Too easy pickings for him. He likes a challenge.
Gambit had tried knocking on Alicia's door but she still wouldn't answer.
He tried.
He told her he was leaving. What she does now is up to her.
Gambit mounts his bike and prepares to leave when a softly spoken voice interrupts him.
"So you're just leaving?"
Alicia.
Gambit turns his head to find her standing there, one small bag slung over her shoulder which probably contains her belongings and his heart does feel for the truly devastated looking girl. "Gambit owned Magneto a favour. D'at was all," he explains his reasons for being here. Now Magneto's gone there's nothing holding him here.
You can see a thinking process play out on Alicia's face. "I have no-one else," she says, sounding truly sad.
Gambit closes his eyes. He's gonna regret this. He just knows it. "Alright petit. If you want to come with Gambit get on but d'ere's no mission. No great cause. Gambit needs some time where he's comfortable. Take it or leave it," he makes his one time only offer.
Alicia literally has nothing else so she gets on. Whatever Gambit wants, wherever he's going is where she is going. "So, um, where are we going?" she wants to know.
"Home," Gambit answers.
"New Orleans?"
"De one and only."
And with that Gambit fires up his bike, revs the engine and the two are off over the horizon.
Regan and Martinique Wyngarde have disagreed a lot over the years. Regan has considered her older sister a 'skank', a cheap whore, a...well you get the idea.
In return Martinique has considered her younger sister as someone who just has to steal the spotlight, an attention whore, a...well you get the idea.
It's one of the many things they used to hate about each other. Hence the acts of attempted murder. May not make sense to other people but in their minds it made perfect sense.
Then one day Magneto and their father(Jason Wyngarde aka Mastermind) showed up just when they were about to kill each other and managed to persuade them to try a different path. One where they didn't have to hide the fact they were mutants and try to skirt by on the fringes of society.
The idea appealed to them at the time and they have had some fun since. Especially with Superman...but that story is for another day.
Now it was over. Magneto was dead. And the sisters were packing up and getting ready to head for home. They're certain they'll find something to do...or use their powers to have some fun at the very least.
Martinique is packed and has her bag slung over her shoulder as she looks for her sister. She finds Regan in what is(was?) their father's room. He was on an undercover mission for Magneto until this. Infiltrating the Hellfire Club as a spy. Whatever. It doesn't matter now.
Martinique pokes her head in, slightly puzzled at seeing Regan here. The one thing the two have always had in common is their mutual dislike of their father. Which can you blame them? Absentee father doesn't even come close to covering it. Plus their very conception was their father using his power of illusion to seduce their mothers.
In a sense you could say their lives started on a lie. Not the best start is it?
Martinique finds Regan sitting on the bed looking through a box with papers. "Trying to find our hidden inheritance?" she quips.
Regan looks up and Martinique can sense the shock in the blond's mind.
"What?" Martinique asks.
Regan holds out a letter. "I was just looking through his things and I found that. Read it."
Martinique frowns and takes the letter and reads. As she reads her brow furrows much more deeply. "Lets see...thank you for looking after...yadda yadda...I promise to keep her out of my affairs...yadda yadda...as much as it pains me she can never know I'm her father...what?!" she screams. She looks intensely at Regan.
Regan nods though in a sort of stupor.
"This isn't talking about either of us?"
"No. It's obviously a letter he wrote but never sent. Recheck the date. It's this year."
Martinique cannot believe this. "We have another sister," she says what the revelation is. A sister they never knew existed. One whose existence their father kept from them. "Bastard!" she swears in spite at her father.
"That's my sentiment, yes," Regan agrees.
"Is there an address for where this was going to go?"
Regan blinks. "You want to look for her?" she queries what she thinks her sister is implying.
"Why not? She's our sister," Martinique explains it as if it's obvious they should.
"There's not an address, no but the postscript is in Welsh," Regan points out.
Martinique checks and that's true. Shame she doesn't read Welsh so doesn't know what it says. She'll google it. "So our sister is Welsh?"
Regan shrugs. "We don't have a surname. We have 3 first names. Our sister and her grandparents if that letter's telling the truth."
"It's a start," Martinique says. A surname would be more useful sure but with their combined telepathic powers surely they could find their newly discovered sister even if it takes them awhile. "So Megan," she reads off the name of their sister, "wherever you are get ready because your sisters are coming to find you before dad ruins your life the way he ruined ours," she says...and that gets to the root of why Martinique wants to find this girl. Their father didn't do squat for all of Martinique and Regan's lives. Martinique won't let their sister feel she is abandoned like that...and hey, what's more special than having her as a big sister, hmm?
Regan gets to her feet. "You know what lets do it," she agrees...and hey, what's more special than having her as a big sister, hmm? "By the way did you notice the way he addresses our sister?" she asks Martinique about.
Martinique nods and speaks it with a little revolted tone at how sickly sweet it sounds.. "Yeah. My sweet little Pixie."
Lorna had returned to her mother's side. She had never, ever felt more lost than she does now. Her father is...dead. Her mother lies here as unresponsive now as she has been in the nearly 9 months since she was shot. Deep down Lorna knows that after being like this for so very long the chances her mother will ever wake up are slim to none. Her 'cousin' is down in the Savage Land.
And Pietro...where has he gone?
Ok so she is mad at him over Piotr but the least he could do is be a man and let her vent at him but no! He can't even do that!
Lorna holds her mother's hand within her own. "Mom...I wish you were here," she says, her voice mournful. "Dad's gone...and I don't know what to do," she freely admits she is lost. She's still a young teenager who has lost both her parents in a way. It's amazing she's not a freakin wreck right now...but that may come from her father. No matter what he faced in his life Magneto kept it together, kept fighting, right until the end.
Lorna suddenly bursts out in a sob as her grief becomes momentarily too much for her to contain. She wipes away at her tears when a hand falls upon her shoulder. She turns her head expecting Pietro but finds it is Piotr, his face ashen with sadness. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "About your sister. I didn't know."
Piotr's sadness feels all consuming. "I...know," he accepts her word. "She was the last of my family. Now she's gone and I am alone," he expresses his current situation. He feels terrible inside. He was suppose to look after her after their parents died. He has been living with that failure since the day Magneto took her and now...he doesn't know where she is or who took her or even where to start looking. If Magneto didn't know and couldn't figure it out how can he?
Lorna reaches up and squeezes Piotr's massive, compared to her own, hand, trying to do something to give him comfort. It seems for the moment they only have each other to try and console the other.
There is an uncomfortable sounding cough that interrupts this moment. Lorna peers round Colossus' large frame to see her brother standing in the doorway, bag slung over his shoulder. "You leaving?" Lorna asks him, ire slipping into her voice as if she cannot believe him...which she can't!
"Well with you, yes," Pietro replies.
Lorna frowns. "Leave to where?"
"The Savage Land," Pietro answers as if this should be obvious.
"Why?"
"Because it's our father's legacy and it's our duty to make sure it isn't perverted by Sinister."
Piotr actually snorts. "Since when have you cared about such things?" he questions Pietro's motives.
Pietro's eyes narrow as he glares at the large Russian mutant. "Listen, Jumbo, don't talk to me like you know me because you don't," he snaps.
"What I know is that you think it's your right to inherit your father's legacy not because you have done anything to earn it but just because you are his son and that somehow legitimatises your claim. It does not. Leadership should belong to those who have proved they possess the gifts necessary. You have proved no such thing," Piotr lays down his observations of Quicksilver.
Pietro zips right into Piotr's face...or as close as he can to doing so considering how much taller Colossus is. Pietro is virtually foaming at the mouth in rage. "At least I don't have to have family members taken to knock sense into me!" he snarls.
Piotr's eyes flash in anger and he transforms into his metal form and manages to snatch Pietro by the shirt and lifts him off the ground. "You dare!" he roars in his anger.
Pietro remains remarkable calm considering the situation he is in. "Yeah I dare," he retorts. "And unless you want your ass kicked I suggest you let me go."
"I will teach you the respect I should have taught your father, little man," Colossus vows.
Before either can get to it though two things happen. One, Colossus is jerked away hard to up against the wall and two, metal strips wrap around Pietro and jerk him away to the opposite wall. Standing between the two stands Polaris, her arms outstretched to either side, her eyes glowing with green magnetic energy, as she pins the two using her own vast powers. "That is enough!" she cries, her voice and face showing her deep upset. Tears are welling up once again. "My God what is wrong with you?!" she shouts at the two of them. "My father just died and you two want to fight?" She shakes her head in denial. "No. I won't allow it. Especially not with my mother here. Pietro," Lorna addresses her brother, "you want to go to the Savage Land go but it will be without me," she warns him.
"What?" Pietro asks, truly surprised by what she is saying.
"I...that place...it means nothing to me without dad. My home was wherever he was. He's gone. I have no home now. So go..." Lorna says her voice deflating as she loses the inner strength to keep arguing. She lets him go. "Just go," she almost tells him to get out of her sight.
Pietro only hesitates for a moment before he's gone in a silver streak.
Lorna lets Colossus go and slumps back down into her chair, her head in her hands.
"I...I am sorry," Piotr says as he realises what he has done to her with his outburst.
"So am I," Lorna sniffles. "He actually left," she says in disbelief that Pietro left her. Sure she told him to but he should have stayed and fought. He is suppose to be her brother.
"I am not the best one to judge considering my failure to protect my own sister," Colossus chooses to say.
"Sorry," Lorna whispers before a new slight tension comes to her slim frame. "Sister?" she queries.
"Da?" Piotr says rather confused by her tone.
Lorna looks up, shaking her head. "No. I have a sister," she elaborates, showing what she was referring to. "We...can phone her? Ask for her help. The X-Men's help with my mother...and maybe your sister. Maybe they can think of a way to figure out what happened to her."
Piotr takes a moment to consider that. What the hell? It's not like they have a lot of other options now is it?
At the Institute...
Wanda can remember when her mother died how all encompassing the grief was. A grief that turned to anger that led to her loss of control of her powers that caused her father to lock her away.
This time, she's not angry. She's just...sad. Sad about what is hard to tell. Probably just the fact that despite everything he was still her father and she was his daughter and now he's gone.
She fantasied so often about ending him yet at the back of her head she also thought he was just this indomitable figure that would always be around.
Well that's completely contradictory.
Wanda sighs. She's sitting on a bench in the garden part of the mansion grounds. She needed to be alone for awhile, alone with her thoughts. At least she's not crying any more but processing this...it won't sink in.
The way Apocalypse destroyed her father...it was just so ruthless and cold...and she saw it in front of her eyes. She can't stop seeing it. It keeps replaying over and over in her head and she keeps trying to figure out what else she could have done.
She's going to drive herself crazy. Clark's already mentioned that to her because he did the same after his mother lost her baby. He said as much as it is human nature to think about 'what if?' that she has to let it go. Not necessarily today but he joked she was already crazy enough.
That got a tiny smile out of her. Once upon a time she would have gone nuclear on someone even joking about her being crazy considering the place her father sent her to but Clark just manages to get away with it. Clark's been...amazing. More like the guy she first met than he has been for ages. He's been a bit...odd to say the least lately but it's like someone slapped some sense into him.
Speaking of Clark, Wanda can see him approaching her now.
"Hey," he greets her.
"Hey," she returns.
"I don't want to intrude..."
"You never intrude, Clark," Wanda assures him.
Clark smiles at that. The goofy one. Wanda hasn't seen much of that grin lately either. "There's a phone call for you," he lets her know.
Wanda's face screws up in puzzlement. "For me?" she queries. Who would be phoning her? Almost everyone she considers a friend is here, at this mansion. Though in Rogue's case friend is stretching the definition to breaking point right at the moment.
Clark nods. "It's your sister."
Wanda's eyes go wide. "L-Lorna?" she stutters so in surprise is she that the green-haired girl would call her, especially after their last meeting where they slapped each other.
Clark shrugs, unable to explain why.
Wanda rises to her feet and strides briskly toward the mansion. Once inside she picks up the phone. "Lorna?" she queries.
"Wanda? That you?" comes the reply.
"Yeah. What is it?"
"It's um...well I, uh...I need you," Lorna confesses in a tone of utter desperation.
Wanda blinks and looks up to Clark who is still with her.
He nods with his head for her to accept the request.
Wanda takes a breath. "Ok. Ok. I'll help you," she agrees to. "Now tell me where you are."
Author's Note: So that's the end of the Acolytes for now. Having Gambit head home to New Orleans sets up Cajun Spice for when I get around to it. I feel kinda bad that I've left the real possibility of sweet little Pixie having to deal with her older sisters. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Impact Aftermath part 3 as Wanda and company come to the aid of her sister.
